A Levy County ambulance crashed and killed a deer early Thursday morning on its way to the hospital.
At about 1:25 a.m., the ambulance drove a patient east on State Road 24 when it hit a deer crossing the road, said Florida Highway Patrol spokeswoman Sgt. Tracy Hisler-Pace.
The ambulance was taking a patient to the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center when it struck the deer with the right side of its bumper, according to an FHP press release.
Although the deer died, neither the driver nor the passengers were injured, said Alesha Rinaudo, the assistant to the director of the Levy County Department of Public Safety.
The ambulance was damaged and towed away, Rinaudo said.
“We did dispatch another ambulance to go to that location of the deer incident, and they moved the patient to the other ambulance and completed transport,” she said.
FHP arrived about 10 minutes after the crash and estimated the damage to cost about $5,000, Hisler-Pace said.
The deer, she said, must have been larger than average due to the extent of the crash.
“It was a pretty good pop,” she said.
Contact Martin Vassolo at mvassolo@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @martindvassolo.
